Imoen advice

So I decided to duel to mage after 7. And spent 100 points into detect illusions. 25 into detect traps which only gives her 73. Figure I'll use another thief for durlags. Maybe safana. But never messed with detect illusions before. And since she is going to be a mage I figured it would be great for rp reasons if Gorion taught her a higher awareness of detecting illusions which made her interested in magic in the first place.

So far it's been nice. Every enemy who casts mirror image, invisibility gets immediately dispelled. Makes killing them super easy and kinda funny. But am I going to be hurting myself in the long run doing it this way?

I usually aim for 100 Detect Traps and 85 Open Locks and dual her as early as possible and ignore detect illusion, set trap, etc. With the Knock Spell you don't need to pick locks but at the same time you don't want to have to cast a spell EVERY TIME you run into a lock you can't bash open. 70+ Open Locks is plenty to tackle most of the locks in the game and let you use magic on the few that won't open.

That is along time for Imoen to get her thief skills back - you can just barely make level 8 mage before the game ends even with tosc. Its best to duel at 6 for almost max thief points usually in find trap and open locks but since you choose another root to follow then I wouldn't worry to much about her thieving abilities - I would worry more that you might never get her thief skills back in time. Of course there is a small way to get around that - make your party smaller for a time means of course more xp for those that remain and do all the new NPCs quest to get as much xp as possible - although really its not that much but every little helps if you duel late

There are a ton of other thieves in the game to assist you - especially if you haven't spoken to them yet - Safana is probably your best choice followed by Alora.

And of course there are thieving potions available - if you really need them they are quite a few you can purchase in BG - a bit expensive but that should not be an issue anymore and it should be more than enough of them to do Durlag's tower if you use them effectively.

I'm running a small party. Imoen, jaheira, and Khalid. And I soloed my charname to 6 before I even got them. Barely finished nashkel mines. Still have lots of exploring to do before starting cloakwood. So she will level fast. Haven't even done lighthouse, wyvern caves or area north of FAI.

Plus no xp cap via bg tweaks. I'm sure she will hit level 8 mage before or during baldurs gate.

I dual her at level 7 since that's what she is in Baldur's Gate 2. I usually play as a fighter/thief who takes care of the open locks so Imoen can focus on traps and illusions. She doesn't have enough points for anything else really.